15 September, 2014 – O’Neill, the original Northern California surf and lifestyle brand, is proud to unveil a new collaboration with Pendleton Woolen Mills – the family-owned textile manufacturing company, based in Portland, Oregon, that traces its roots back 151 years.

Revealed as part of the O’Neill Fall 2014 collection, the collaboration between the two iconic North American companies represents a celebration and showcase of the ultimate in refined craftsmanship – a standard that both O’Neill and Pendleton have set out to achieve from the start, inspired by their respective founders.

Local in its ethos but known the world over for the exquisite quality of its wool, Pendleton Woolen Mills has injected its unmistakable plaid aesthetic – popularized by 1960’s surfers in California – across a line that includes a jacket, shirt, sweat, tee and accessories. O’Neill’s long-standing reputation for innovation and youthful style, meanwhile, provides the collection with a unique contemporary twist.

The O’Neill x Penwool jacket typifies the collaboration, combining superior quality Pendleton wool with O’Neill’s stain-resistant, water repelling and quick-drying Hyperdry technology. With balmy summer temperatures now a distant memory, the new collaboration serves up warmth and dryness through the colder months – whether it’s down on the coast, in the city or up in the mountains.

The O’Neill x Pendleton collaboration will be launched on 23 September – that rare occasion when day and night are of equal duration – and will be available to buy online at oneill.com, as well as in selected flagship O’Neill stores and premium retail stores.

ABOUT O’NEILL

Over 60 years ago, Jack O’Neill invented the wetsuit from a San Francisco highway garage, and gave birth to an entire industry in the process. Today, the same unreasonable spirit still drives everything that we at O’Neill do. Whether it be on the slopes or in the surf, O’Neill stands behind our commitment to creating and crafting product that allows you to do what you love for longer.

We have this collection at our Home Store (503.535.5444) in Portland’s Pearl District:

These world-quality ingredients help bring the flavors of the Pacific Northwest to chocolates that perfectly express Pendleton’s commitment to excellence. ALMA’s Hannah Sullivan calls it the Oregon Flavors Collection, and it’s available now at Pendleton’s retail store locationsacross America. We suggest you get yours soon, as these are disappearing as soon as we put them out.

Pendleton chocolates; isn’t this a dream come true?

If you’d like to understand why Pendleton chose ALMA to develop our chocolates, you should visit the ALMA store in Northeast Portland.

You can browse the chocolates, baked and frozen treats.

Your curiosity will be aroused and answered with a generous array of samples.

Make your choice and take a seat with a freshly crafted coffee or tea drink, or treat yourself to a drinking chocolate. Try the Thai Coconut Cup; soothing, enlivened with notes of coconut, but never overwhelming despite the fact that you are essentially drinking melted chocolate. Best of all, you can visit ALMA’s beautiful icons; poured of single-source chocolate and gilded with edible gold leaf. There’s one for everyone you know.

Sarah Hart and Hannah Sullivan, the mother and daughter team behind ALMA, bring a delightful pedigree to the work of creating Portland’s premiere chocolates.

Sarah is a former college instructor at the University of Oregon who repeatedly found herself drawn back to the world of fine food throughout her life. She worked at Papa Haydn after relocating to Portland, and went on to L’auberge. Sarah has received awards and accolades for her work with ALMA; the 2014 Good Food Award for flavor and sustainability, the 2008 Rising Star Chocolatier Award, and more. She’s also a Cooking Light 2010 Taste Test Winner. Sarah named the business after her grandmother, Alma, who had a special gift for feeding people.

Sarah’s daughter, Hannah, was born in Eugene and raised in Portland. It’s only natural that she moved to Brooklyn, the Portland of the east coast, after she finished college. Hannah worked as a pastry chef, worked at Penguin publishing before settling in as a food editor for Bon Apetit magazine. Brooklyn is one of the birthplaces of the Maker Movement, with its grassroots commitment to local materials and serious craftsmanship. Hannah was especially interested in the rise of artisanal food makers. As she puts it, she thought, “Hey, I know one of those.” She returned to Oregon in 2012 to join her mother in a transformation of ALMA that included opening a commercial kitchen to grow the wholesale side of the business.

The result? Bliss, really. Whatever it is chocolate does for the body and brain (and scientifically, it’s suspected to do wonderful things), ALMA chocolate succeeds completely. We couldn’t be prouder of this small but delicious collaboration.

Pendleton Woolen Mills and Ariat Boots have collaborated for Fall 14. We’re bringing you a limited-edition capsule collection of Western and English boots done with Ariat leather and technology, and Pendleton signature wool fabrics. We’re excited to collaborate with Ariat, International, the leading manufacturer of performance equestrian footwear. Ariat pioneered the application of advanced athletic shoe technology into English riding boots, making riding boots as wearable as they are beautiful. This particular capsule collection marries Ariat’s expertise with two iconic Pendleton weaving traditions.

If you ask people in the American West about Pendleton fabrics, they will probably tell you about our Native American-inspired patterns; the boldly colored geometric designs from our Trade blankets, woven in our Northwest mills on huge jacquard looms. The Caldera Pendleton and Meadow Pendleton boot styles celebrate this side of our company’s heritage, pairing tan distressed leather with our Coyote Butte patterned Pendleton wool. Both the knee-high Caldera Pendleton and the Meadow Pendleton bootie are built with Ariat’s signature ATS® technology for superior cushioning and long-lasting support.

The Pendleton x Ariat English style boots take us even further back than the trade blankets, to the days when our founder, Thomas Kay, arrived in Oregon and opened his Salem, Oregon, mill. A former bobbin boy who learned his trade in England and honed it through mill management in America, Thomas Kay wove fine worsteds, tweeds, checks, windowpanes and hounds tooth textiles. That side of our history is celebrated with the English boots, which use walnut leather paired with Pendleton’s Oregon Tweed in a hounds tooth pattern.

The pull-on Shannon Pendleton H2O has a full waterproof construction, and the Piedmont Pendleton is a slip-on clog that features a full-grain leather upper and vamp strap in Pendleton fabric.

Ariat makes real boots for real riders, but you can wear them anywhere you want to. The tall Caldera is available now at pendleton-usa.

The other three styles will be available in October from Ariat. Thanks, Ariat, for helping celebrate both sides of the Pendleton weaving heritage; the rugged and the refined.

The weather is right for hitting the waves. We’re celebrating summer this year with a Blackfern collaboration; two boards that are part of our Surf Pendleton collection. So here, in their own words, are all the steps that go into making these fine boards–one at a time, all by hand.

For the Pendleton Limited Edition Surfboard, a 1960’s era single fin model was chosen. This timeless retro board embodies the lifestyle of the era; clean, simple, and stylish. Many of these retro shapes are having a resurgence in popularity because of their versatility in a range of surf conditions. The board style pays homage to an era in which Pendleton was a vibrant force in Californian surf culture.

The Process Starts

The first step in the fabrication process is to trace out the outline of the board onto a blank, which is a rough-cut piece of foam that resembles a surfboard, albeit not a very functional one. The outline is cut out of the blank, not unlike making Christmas cookies, and the excess foam is removed. The outline is then tuned by a rasp-like tool called a surform, in order to hone the perfect curve that will define the finished board.

From Bottom…

The next step is to craft the bottom of the board. This process begins by power planing or “skinning” the protective outer shell of the blank that protects the softer foam within. After the skin is removed, the bottom contours are shaped in by removing material with additional passes with the power planer, surform, and finally, sanding blocks. The single fin model features shallow concavity through the middle of the bottom, blending into a V contoured tail. These contours give the board a loose and nimble feel with higher performance than would be achievable with a flat bottomed board.

…To Top

At this point it is time to flip the blank over and begin working on the top of the board. Similar to the bottom, the first step is to remove the protective skin of the blank. During this process, I start to flesh out the top contours and the “foil” of the board. Foil refers to the changing thickness, both from the center towards the rails as well as from the tip to the tail of the board. It is during this process that a shaper’s ability to visualize in three dimensions becomes crucial. Knowing where to remove material and in what quantity can be tricky. The goal is to produce a smoothly foiled board; maintaining volume in helpful areas and removing it where unneeded.

Forming the Rails

After the top has been shaped and foiled, its time to move onto the rails of the surfboard. At this point the board has a functional top and bottom but with its boxy, vertical rails, it would be miserable to surf. To form a smooth curving rail, I begin removing rail material in the form of rail “bands.” Bands are sloped ridges that run the length of the board; thickest at the middle and thinner towards the tip and tail. By removing rail material incrementally in these stepped ridges, it is possible to produce a rail that changes shape and thickness in a controlled and consistent fashion. Once the bands are crafted to satisfaction, the board is turned onto its rail and I begin passing a sanding screen over the ridges of the “bands.” After screening repeatedly, the ridges disappears and a smoothly curving rail emerges.

Finishing Foam Touches

The final steps of the shaping process are to install the slider single fin box and to finish sand the entire shaped surfboard to a buttery smooth finish. The board is signed off to the customer who ordered it. I write the customer’s name, the dimensions of the board, and finally “Pendleton Surf Limited Edition.”

Getting that distinctive Pendleton look

The specialized Pendleton artwork is applied before glassing the board. The two color versions vary on their preparation. To produce the characteristic plaid pattern, I start off by creating a series of vertical stripes that represent the four primary colors of the pattern. I then lay out horizontal bands that cross directly over the vertical bands. I use the same four primary colors and spray through a sanding screen, producing the blended color tones featured in the plaid print. Finally, I add a band of dark color around the rails of the surfboard to form a frame of sorts.

For the striped version, I tape off three zones of the board; center, nose, and tail. Within these zones, alternating colored bands of varying thicknesses are laid down to form the distinctive, classic pattern.

Onward to Glassing

Glassing is only achievable in incremental steps, similar to the process of shaping the foam of the board. Glassing consists of four separate treatments of resin that constitute the glassing process; two laminations and two hotcoats. A lamination is the process through which fiberglass cloth, saturated with resin, is bonded to the fragile foam core. A hot coat is an additional layer of resin that helps protect the fiberglass cloth and completely seal the inner foam core.

Laminations

The first lamination occurs on the bottom of the surfboard. To prepare for the lamination, the top of the board is taped and masked to avoid being exposed to resin prematurely. A piece of fiberglass cloth is rolled out over the length of the board and is cut so that the fabric drapes over the rails, usually extending approximately 2-4 inches below the beginning of the rail. Surf Pendleton and Blackfern decals and fin boxes are dry fitted to ensure that no mishaps occur. The entire surface of the board is then “wetted out” with polyester laminating resin. A squeegee is used to work the resin into the porous foam of the board and to fully saturate the fiberglass cloth. The cloth is carefully wrapped over the rails and the board is left to harden or “cure”.

Once the bottom is cured, the board is flipped over and the same process is done to the top, this time with two layers of fiberglass cloth to add additional strength to the deck. After wrapping the top layers of fiberglass onto the bottom of the board, the resin and fiberglass are left to cure once again.

Hotcoats

To hotcoat the board and finish glassing the board, another coat of polyester resin called sanding resin is applied to each side of the board. This process is among the most simple of all the steps of surfboard fabrication – resin is poured out of a small pail and then spread evenly over the surface of the board with a large paint brush. Each side is left to cure before flipping the board a final time to hotcoat the other side.

Hot coating produces a slick, imperfect surface. In order to make it ready for use, every square inch of the board must be sanded. Sanding makes the surfboard finally feel like a surfboard; smooth, strong, and perfect. Many boards are considered finished and ready for use at this stage but the Pendleton boards receive one additional treatment – a gloss coat.

Glossing

The gloss coat is nearly identical to the hotcoat. The only major difference in the processes is that the gloss coat resin is slightly thinner and is applied to a perfectly smooth, even surface. As a result, less resin is required and a perfectly smooth surface is formed. Even so, the entire board is sanded again to make it ready for use. Successive sand paper treatments, each one higher grit than the last, are used to form completely smooth and scratch free surface.

Finishing Touches

To bring a shine to the finished product, buffing compound is applied using a woolen compounding bonnet. Finally, a treatment of polishing compound is applied to all surfaces of the board using a polishing pad to give it a candy-like luster.

Launch

Tools and hands have passed over every square inch of this board dozens of times and, at last, this Pendleton Limited Edition Surfboard is ready to ride! Get ready to catch some great waves!

Our Surf Pendleton collection draws inspiration from our history with the California surf scene, where our Board Shirt was featured in songs and on album covers. The collection also celebrates the robust surf culture of our home state, Oregon, where we’ve collaborated with Blackfern on two limited edition surfboards. But surfing was born in the Hawaiian islands, and nothing says the islands like a Reyn Spooner shirt.

To quote the company:

It is true that in Hawaii, time has a way of stopping. Our way of life here has roots in the ancient, with nature and in Hawaiian culture. We are committed to enhancing the past by bringing our lifestyle right to you. We’ve been in business since 1956 using unique archival prints, exclusive vintage artwork, and work of celebrated artists to evoke the island life.

Our designers worked together on to incorporate traditional Pendleton patterns into Reyn Spooner’s Spooner Kloth®. This fabric is woven in Japan and sewn on the reverse for a distinctively weathered appearance. Shirts and shorts made with Spooner Kloth® are cool, easy care, and they last forever.

So there you have it; a little bit of Hawaii with Surf Pendleton style. Mahalo!

ed. note: Happy Summer! This post originally ran a few years ago, but with the weather like it is, we hope you’ll enjoy it again today.

In the early 1960s, a group called The Pendletones adopted their name in honor of the surf uniform of the day: Pendleton shirts worn over tee shirts with khakis. The original lineup included brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine.

The Pendletones soon changed their name to the Beach Boys . Even though only one member of the group had ever been on a surfboard, they sang about the California surfing scene; waves, sunshine, cars and girls. This might have been simple subject matter, but layered instrumentation and soaring harmonies made these songs anything but simple. Under the unique artistic leadership of Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys defined surf music. And though their name changed, their uniform didn’t. The band wore this blue and charcoal plaid shirt on the covers of 45s and LPs throughout the early 1960s.

The Beach Boys’ Pendleton shirts were part an existing trend. When surfing came to California in the late 1950s, surfers devised performance wear: swim trunks and plaid Pendleton shirts over a layer of Vaseline. Surfers wore the same shirts over light pants on the shore, and a fashion trend was born.

This look hit the radio airwaves courtesy of the Majorettes, whose song, “White Levis” became a number one hit in 1963. As the lyrics said, “My boyfriend’s always wearin’ white Levi’s…and his tennis shoes and his surfin’ hat and a big plaid Pendleton shirt.”

That’s a Pendleton shirt cover of that 45, even though they named the song after the pants. You can give it a listen here, and don’t be surprised if you start singing along. But let’s get back to the shirt made so popular by the Beach Boys.

In 2002, Pendleton celebrated eight decades of Pendleton shirts by bringing back iconic shirts from each decade. To celebrate the 1960s, we brought back the Board Shirt in the same plaid seen on all those record covers. We officially named it the Blue Beach Boys Plaid.

The shirt has stayed in the line ever since. We’ve used it in caps, hats, bags and jackets. It’s still made in the original 100% virgin Umatilla wool as it was back then, but we’ve interpreted it in rayon for campshirts and cotton for sleepwear.

We have done a few colorations of the plaid. Whether it’s in blue, coral, rust or olive, the pattern is easily recognizable.

Because of its strong ties to surfing history and culture, this pattern was used in key collaborations with Hurley and VANS in the late 2000s.

There is a discussion now and then in Pendleton’s Menswear division about which is our most enduring men’s item of all time. Some say it’s the Topster, the shirt jacket that defined collegiate wear in the 1950s and 60s. Some say it’s the Westerley cardigan worn by the Dude in “The Big Lebowski.” Others claim the honor for the Beach Boys Board Shirt.

This shirt is almost as beloved as the band that made it famous! It’s one of our top-sellers each year, regularly chosen by winners of the wool shirt giveaways we have on our Menswear Facebook page, and still worn by surfers, boarders, musicians, sons and fathers. The shirt is still going strong, and so are the Beach Boys. The band is currently out on tour, and they still love Pendleton.

As we head into the final days of our Surf Pendleton pin-to-win contest, we thought you’d enjoy an in-depth look at the making of the board you can win. So here, in their own words, are all the steps that go into making these fine boards–one at a time, all by hand.

For the Pendleton Limited Edition Surfboard, a 1960’s era single fin model was chosen. This timeless retro board embodies the lifestyle of the era; clean, simple, and stylish. Many of these retro shapes are having a resurgence in popularity because of their versatility in a range of surf conditions. The board style pays homage to an era in which Pendleton was a vibrant force in Californian surf culture.

The Process Starts

The first step in the fabrication process is to trace out the outline of the board onto a blank, which is a rough-cut piece of foam that resembles a surfboard, albeit not a very functional one. The outline is cut out of the blank, not unlike making Christmas cookies, and the excess foam is removed. The outline is then tuned by a rasp-like tool called a surform, in order to hone the perfect curve that will define the finished board.

From Bottom…

The next step is to craft the bottom of the board. This process begins by power planing or “skinning” the protective outer shell of the blank that protects the softer foam within. After the skin is removed, the bottom contours are shaped in by removing material with additional passes with the power planer, surform, and finally, sanding blocks. The single fin model features shallow concavity through the middle of the bottom, blending into a V contoured tail. These contours give the board a loose and nimble feel with higher performance than would be achievable with a flat bottomed board.

…To Top

At this point it is time to flip the blank over and begin working on the top of the board. Similar to the bottom, the first step is to remove the protective skin of the blank. During this process, I start to flesh out the top contours and the “foil” of the board. Foil refers to the changing thickness, both from the center towards the rails as well as from the tip to the tail of the board. It is during this process that a shaper’s ability to visualize in three dimensions becomes crucial. Knowing where to remove material and in what quantity can be tricky. The goal is to produce a smoothly foiled board; maintaining volume in helpful areas and removing it where unneeded.

Forming the Rails

After the top has been shaped and foiled, its time to move onto the rails of the surfboard. At this point the board has a functional top and bottom but with its boxy, vertical rails, it would be miserable to surf. To form a smooth curving rail, I begin removing rail material in the form of rail “bands.” Bands are sloped ridges that run the length of the board; thickest at the middle and thinner towards the tip and tail. By removing rail material incrementally in these stepped ridges, it is possible to produce a rail that changes shape and thickness in a controlled and consistent fashion. Once the bands are crafted to satisfaction, the board is turned onto its rail and I begin passing a sanding screen over the ridges of the “bands.” After screening repeatedly, the ridges disappears and a smoothly curving rail emerges.

Finishing Foam Touches

The final steps of the shaping process are to install the slider single fin box and to finish sand the entire shaped surfboard to a buttery smooth finish. The board is signed off to the customer who ordered it. I write the customer’s name, the dimensions of the board, and finally “Pendleton Surf Limited Edition.”

Getting that distinctive Pendleton look

The specialized Pendleton artwork is applied before glassing the board. The two color versions vary on their preparation. To produce the characteristic plaid pattern, I start off by creating a series of vertical stripes that represent the four primary colors of the pattern. I then lay out horizontal bands that cross directly over the vertical bands. I use the same four primary colors and spray through a sanding screen, producing the blended color tones featured in the plaid print. Finally, I add a band of dark color around the rails of the surfboard to form a frame of sorts.

For the striped version, I tape off three zones of the board; center, nose, and tail. Within these zones, alternating colored bands of varying thicknesses are laid down to form the distinctive, classic pattern.

Onward to Glassing

Glassing is only achievable in incremental steps, similar to the process of shaping the foam of the board. Glassing consists of four separate treatments of resin that constitute the glassing process; two laminations and two hotcoats. A lamination is the process through which fiberglass cloth, saturated with resin, is bonded to the fragile foam core. A hot coat is an additional layer of resin that helps protect the fiberglass cloth and completely seal the inner foam core.

Laminations

The first lamination occurs on the bottom of the surfboard. To prepare for the lamination, the top of the board is taped and masked to avoid being exposed to resin prematurely. A piece of fiberglass cloth is rolled out over the length of the board and is cut so that the fabric drapes over the rails, usually extending approximately 2-4 inches below the beginning of the rail. Surf Pendleton and Blackfern decals and fin boxes are dry fitted to ensure that no mishaps occur. The entire surface of the board is then “wetted out” with polyester laminating resin. A squeegee is used to work the resin into the porous foam of the board and to fully saturate the fiberglass cloth. The cloth is carefully wrapped over the rails and the board is left to harden or “cure”.

Once the bottom is cured, the board is flipped over and the same process is done to the top, this time with two layers of fiberglass cloth to add additional strength to the deck. After wrapping the top layers of fiberglass onto the bottom of the board, the resin and fiberglass are left to cure once again.

Hotcoats

To hotcoat the board and finish glassing the board, another coat of polyester resin called sanding resin is applied to each side of the board. This process is among the most simple of all the steps of surfboard fabrication – resin is poured out of a small pail and then spread evenly over the surface of the board with a large paint brush. Each side is left to cure before flipping the board a final time to hotcoat the other side.

Hot coating produces a slick, imperfect surface. In order to make it ready for use, every square inch of the board must be sanded. Sanding makes the surfboard finally feel like a surfboard; smooth, strong, and perfect. Many boards are considered finished and ready for use at this stage but the Pendleton boards receive one additional treatment – a gloss coat.

Glossing

The gloss coat is nearly identical to the hotcoat. The only major difference in the processes is that the gloss coat resin is slightly thinner and is applied to a perfectly smooth, even surface. As a result, less resin is required and a perfectly smooth surface is formed. Even so, the entire board is sanded again to make it ready for use. Successive sand paper treatments, each one higher grit than the last, are used to form completely smooth and scratch free surface.

Finishing Touches

To bring a shine to the finished product, buffing compound is applied using a woolen compounding bonnet. Finally, a treatment of polishing compound is applied to all surfaces of the board using a polishing pad to give it a candy-like luster.

Launch

Tools and hands have passed over every square inch of this board dozens of times and, at last, this Pendleton Limited Edition Surfboard is ready to ride! Get ready to catch some great waves!

To celebrate its surfing roots and the new collection, Pendleton is hosting the Pin-to-Win Surf Pendleton Contest March 17 – April 28, 2014. Grand Prize is a custom Pendleton Surfboard in the original surf plaid worth $1200; Second Prize is a $400 Pendleton gift card; and Third Prize is a $200 gift card. Contestants enter online using their Pinterest account information.

Blackfern Surfboards is a backyard board company based in Portland, Oregon. Started in 2008, it possesses a distinctly Oregon ocean-meets-the-forest aesthetic. The company creates one-of-a-kind custom surfboards designed in collaboration with each customer. Each board is handmade in Portland by local wave-obsessed surfers.

SURF VISIONARY MIKE HALL

Waves off the rugged Oregon coast are like no others on earth. After much frustration with boards that were not suited to Oregon’s choppy waves, veteran surfer Mike Hall decided to shape his own board – and the rest, as they say, is history. With much trial and error, he found a set of design characteristics that perform well in Oregon’s unique waters. After designing boards for a few friends, Mike devised the Blackfern concept – a grassroots effort to put locally made custom boards into the hands of those who venture into the Pacific Northwest surf.

THE MAKING OF A PENDLETON BOARD

In tribute to a time when Pendleton was a vibrant force in the California surf culture, a 1960s-era single-fin model was chosen. This timeless retro board embodies the lifestyle of the era – clean, simple and stylish. From start to finish, each is a handmade work of art – shaped, painted, glassed, sanded and glossed by hand in Blackfern’s fabrication studio in Portland.

The first step is to trace the outline of the board onto a blank, which is a rough-cut piece of foam.

Next the bottom is crafted, then the top is shaped and foiled.

Then the rails are formed and the final shape begins to emerge.

The final steps of the shaping process are the installation of the slider single-fin box and a sanding to a buttery smooth finish. At this point, Mike writes the customer’s name, board dimensions, and “Pendleton Surf Limited Edition” on the board.

Next the Pendleton plaid or stripe pattern is applied.

Then comes glassing – a four-step process that consists of two laminations and two hotcoats.

Finally, a gloss coat is applied and buffed to a candy-like luster.

Tools and hands have passed over every square inch of the board dozens of times.